Deaf Dog Hears More With ATC

Deaf Dog Music, a fixture on the Chicago recording scene since 1999, has upgraded Studio A with a pair of British-made ATC (Acoustic Transducer Company) SCM100ASL Pro reference loudspeakers. The three-way active mid-field monitor speakers were selected for the facility's large, main control room as a natural complement to the studio's 64-input Focusrite analog mixing console - one of only eight ever manufactured.

According to Deaf Dog Music owner and chief composer, John Ovnik, who has been an integral part of the Chicago music recording community for two decades, "This is my first set of what I consider bigger mid-field speakers. The imaging is great, and physically they fit in the room real nice."

As Ovnik recounts, he auditioned a number of systems from respected speaker manufacturers before deciding on the ATC monitors, which he experienced firsthand at the Mastering Lab in California. "Doug Sax is a good friend and does almost all my mastering. He took me up to Ojai and we spent a day listening to his ATCs. I really liked them. They sounded true and natural."

Although originally a commercial music composer, Ovnik says that he has found himself devoting more time to record projects. "I've been doing more work that requires higher sound pressure, and I was thinking that I wanted a three-way speaker, but I never found one that I was comfortable with."

Returning to Chicago, he called U.S. distributor, Brad Lunde, at ATC's exclusive U.S. distributor, Las Vegas Pro Audio. "Brad sent me a pair of ATCs. It's subjective, of course," he admits, having tried and rejected two competing brands, "but for me, these are the most comfortable. I put them up, and they were what I thought a monitor should be. I mixed a record on these and I loved them."

The ATC SCM100ASLs have performed well since they were installed a few months ago, reports Ovnik. "These speakers have been great, and I've done a lot of mixes on them. I've just completed the sound track album for a musical for the Lookingglass Theatre, with the Chicago Children's Choir. The soundtrack is really interesting." "Sita Ram" adapted from a sacred Hindu epic, is the second collaboration between the theatre and the choir, opening March 16th. "It was the first project that I started and finished with the ATCs. The album came out so they can sell it at the show - and the show's already sold out."

Comments multi-instrumentalist Ovnik, "I've done a lot of commercial music in the past, but lately I've been doing more label work." Ovnik's most noted project to date has been "Simple Complex," by jazz composer and pianist, Jon Weber. The album was critically acclaimed in the U.S. and Europe, ending up at the top of the year's best lists in 2004.

"What I love is recording live musicians in a big room with a real console," he concludes. "I do work in many styles of music, especially while composing for TV. Everything from orchestral works, to the most aggressive alternative rock. If I'm composing I use keyboards to work out ideas. But what I really enjoy is capturing real, organic music, while it's being performed."

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